Guide: Arcane Mage for Starters

Arcane mage guide by Takai of Trollbane (EU), posted on the Official Blizzard Forums.

I’m sure that experienced Mages know all this stuff, and have their own way of doing things, but I’m also sure that there are people with alts, or new Mages that want to improve their dps, and this guide should help. Especially cause Takai included the list of items you should aim to get before venturing in to Raid Dungeons.  It should also help you get in to pugs… you know, link gs thingie I hope you enjoy this guide.

Hopefully helpful Arcane Guide

by Takai

Basically I did this post for my guild and thought that it may help other people  struggling with arcane. I would also like to add that some of it may be different to the general arcane playstyle, but then again, I’m all for “play comfortable” as you will usually do better dps than trying to copy someone else straight off the bat.

The guide below is meant to help out, it is not set in stone, so feel free to change what you need to suit your playestyle.

Abbreviations:
Arcane Blast=AB
Arcane Missiles=AM
Arcane Barrage=ABr
Arcane Power=AP
Icy Veins=IV
Evocation=Evo
Mana Gem=MG
Incanters Absorbtion=IA
Heroism=Hero
FrW = Frost Ward
FiW = Fire Ward
ST=Summon Table
CD = CoolDown
I would like to point out that the dps I cover here is also relative to damage (I just like dps )

The Spec: 57/3/11 (my current spec)

However a lot of Mages are in debate over the usefulness of IA with the recent change and will probably be heading down the route of something like THIS (57/3/11)

You will also notice that I have taken Slow over ABr for the simple reason that I find it far more useful in our current progression.

DPS rotation

This depends on your gear, so I shall give you 3 rotations depending on your gear at the moment. However, all should follow the set rules of the spec.

• Use mana gem at 70% and then whenever it is off cool down

• Only evocate when below 40% mana (this is due to EVO returning 60% mana, and if used before 40% means wasted mana, which is not optimal) and only when it is safe to do so! (look at the fight, and do it between raid damage phases)

• Use frW and FiW as often as possible if either frost or fire damage is present. This will give you more survivability (dead mage does 0 dps). If speccedd for IA, it will increase your damage output. If specce’d into frost warding, it can negate the damage and give you some mana back.

• Never use mana shield. The mana drain basically means you are out of the fight, therefore redundant (evo, gems, mana regen etc etc cannot compensate the mana lost from this spell, as it will drain you dry)

• Try to limit movement as much as possible. Movement disrupts the stream of AB and AM resulting in a dps loss. As we don’t have dots, this is quite a substantial loss.

• Only fish for the AM proc with one or two more AB’s from your normal rotation, then use missiles anyway regardless. Spamming AB drains mana horrendously and like with mana shield, it will leave you mana starved

• Only use ABr when moving and never use it as part of your standard rotation, as it is a dps loss.

• If you are running low on mana, use missiles as soon as they proc to conserve the mana you have left untill your next EVO.

• T10

AB as much as your mana pool allows. (ABx5/6/7 if you can handle this, use your own gudgement). A good idea here is to pop Mirrors and AP with IV then spam AB till AP ends then evo (if below 40% mana) then continue the fight with the standard ABx4 AM to conserve mana till the end of the fight.
With this you need to aim to be as low as possible on mana at the end of the fight.

• 2+ T10 <940 Haste

The rotation is AB, then use the missile proc as soon as you receive it. This is because you want to keep the 2 set bonus up almost permanently (you can check how many AB’s you can do before the buff runs out.  Near 900 haste you can do 3 before it runs out).

When you use your CD’s you can get a 4xAB -> AM rotation going (during hero/bloodlust or IV) and you should use it.  Do not spam AB’s as it will result in a dps loss.  Also use EVO at less than 40% and during the 2 set proc (faster EVO)

• 2+ T10 >940 Haste

The rotation is ABx4 then AM.  With this amount of haste you can comfortably cast 4 Abs during the 2 set proc. You will notice better dps than AB spam (even in HC’s) and better damage output.
Again, EVO at less than 40% and during the 2 set proc (faster EVO)

Tips for Maximizing damage

• Always look at the fight and see what you can use to your advantage!

• Use frost and fire wards when there is frost or fire damage incoming. It equals more SP and Mana (more damage!).  Deathwhisper is a prime example: in her frostbolt stage which aoes the raid, the mana gain from this can be as much as 10k+ mana back (brilliant if your running low)

• Spell steal any buffs you can, these will always give you an edge and increase your dps.

• Decurse yourself (and others) if needed.  On intensive fights, healers are often GCD locked, and helping out with decursing helps a ton.  Better to help keep people alive and gain more raid dmg than to focus on your own.

• Map out the fight before hand, try and keep yourself in a position to minimize your movement (ie a place you can avoid aoe or adds)

• Make sure to use your cooldowns when you CANNOT be interrupted. Your CD’s are a major part of your damage  and any time lost (even the odd second) will be a huge chunk of dps and dmg lost

• Spam cast AB during your cast (precast). This will mean your next cast will start  as soon as the current one ends.

• Survive. If  everything else fails, you have ice block,  invisibility, mirrors, etc etc to stay alive. Dead mage does 0 dps.

GEAR

The following are all available in the pre raid environment (craftables, pvp, and HC’s). I do suggest that you grab most of these before you start raiding as it will give you a good base to start from.

There are multiple choices due to the fact that you wont get everything you need straight away (unless you are very lucky) so it gives you an alternate choice.

• Aim for about 8% hit (due to talents and moonkin/shadow priest buff) as this will make you hit capped in raids. 8% hit is about 240 hit rating (give or take) this is easily achievable with a few hit items.

• The full hit cap is 17% you gain 6% hit from talents

• If you don’t have a moonkin or shadow priest in raid, you will need 11% to be hit capped/

The gear choice is yours, as this is only a guide line to help

Abbreviations:
EOT: Emblem Of  Triumph
Tal: Tailoring
AH: Auction House
PVP: PVP honour reward

Head:

Hood of Firey Aftermath (75 EOT)
Khadgar’s Hood of Conquest (50 EOT)

Shoulders:

Pauldrons of Revered Mortality (45 EOT)
Khadgar’s Shoulderpads of Conquest (30 EOT)

Chest:

Ancient Polar Bear Hide (Heroic Pit of Sauron – Boss: Ick)
Khadgar’s Robe of Conquest (50 EOT)
Merlin’s Robes (Tal/AH) (best item if you can afford)

Wrist:

Bracer of Worn Molars (HC HoR – Boss: Falric)
Bejeweled Wizard’s Bracers (Tal/AH) (best item if you can afford)

Hands:

Khadgar’s Gauntlets of Conquest (30 EOT)
Suspiciously Soft Gloves (HC HoR Boss: Marwyn)

Waist:

Strip of Remorse (HC HoR  Boss: Lich King)
Braid of Salt and Fire (HC PoS  Boss: Ick)

Legs:

Leggings of Woven Death (Tal/AH-BIS I believe however very very costly)
Khadgar’s Leggings of Conquest (50 EOT)

Feet:

Ice-Steeped Sandals (Norm POS Boss: Forge Master)
Prelate’s Snowshoes (HC POS Boss: Scourgelord Tyrannus)
Spellslinger’s Slippers (Tal/AH)
Boots of the Crackling Flame (HC TOC Boss: Black Knight… Niii)

Neck:

Wrathful Gladiator’s Pendant of Subjugation (PVP 52,200 Honour Points)
Arcane Loops of Anger (HC FOS)
Coil of Missing Gems (FOS Boss: Devourer of souls)

Back:

Wrathful Gladiator’s Cloak of Subjugation (PVP 52,200 Honour Points)
Kurisu’s Indecision (HC TOC Boss: Eadric)
Disguise of the Kumiho (25 Emblems of Valor – you can trade triumph to valor)

Rings:

Runed Signet of the Kirin Tor (Not sure if it’s worth 10k gold to get)
Band of the Invoker (35 EOT) well worth it
Band of Channeled Magic (25 EOV)
Spiteful Signet (FOS Boss: Devourer of Souls)

Trinkets:

Abyssal Rune (TOC Normal Boss: Cache (second boss from either of them)
Talisman of Resurgence (50 EOT)

These trinkets are the best in slot till you raid… and even then only top tier can replace them. My advice is spam TOC normal till you get the abyssal as even though it’s a level 200 item it beats the snot out of even level 245 trinkets.

Wand:

Brimstone Igniter (25 EOT)
Soulsplinter (HC HOR Boss: Falric)
Coffin Nail (FOS, POS, HOR random drop)

Weapon:

Engraved Gargoyle Femur (HC POS Boss: Scourgelord Tyrannus)
Seethe (HC FOS Boss: Devourer of Souls)
Unspeakable Secret (POS Forge Master Garfrost)

Quel’Delar, Lens of the Mind (Quest reward, you’ll need Battered Hilt)

I can’t stress how good this weapon is. However, due to the low drop rate you will usually have to grab this from the AH for 10k plus gold. If you can afford it, you should get the item and enchant it with black magic. You wont replace this for a while (not until late ICC) TL/DR – it’s worth the money.

Off Hand:

Shriveled Heart (HC HOR Boss: Lich King) Best off hand before raids by far
Faces of Doom (AH/Inscription)
Ward of the Violet Citadel (25 EOHeroism)

Gemming and enchanting

When Gemming an item take into consideration the gem bonus. If the bonus is less than 7sp (or isn’t for sp) its not worth it.

Basic Guidline:

Red Sockets:  Runed Cardinal Ruby (23SP)
Yellow Sockets: Reckless Ametrine (12SP 10 Haste)
Blue Sockets:  Purified Dreadstone (12SP 10 Spirit) only use 2 of these for the meta gem, then just put 23SP gems in there instead
Meta: Chaotic Skyflare Diamond (23Crit Rating 3% increased crit damage)

Enchanting

• Spell Power is a winner here for any item you can stick it on

For cloak however if you’re a tailor get lightweave embroidery (best enchant by far for cloak). If your not a tailor, get Enchant Cloak – Greater Speed (23 Haste)

Weapon Enchants:

For Main Hand: Mighty Spellpower (63 SP)

• Use this unless it’s a weapon you will not be changing in a while (such as battered hilt reward) in which case get black magic (260 haste aprox on proc)

For Staves:  Enchant Staff – Greater Spellpower (81 SP)

Addons:

To be blunt you don’t need addons to play the game. However, they do make it a hell of a lot easier and can even bump up dps and raid progression.

So first of all lets look at my wacky UI:

As you can see its a bit hectic (my new ones showing some promise tho )

Buffs and Proc Tracking:

Notice the shiny thing in the middle of my screen? This is from the addon Power Auras.

Basically this mod allows me to set up visual aids to procs such as missile barrage and time left on Arcane Power.
While it takes some time to set up, i find it very usefull for tracking of things. For instance my Trinket/ AP macro sometimes miss fires and AP isn’t triggered. Normally i wouldn’t notice, but with Power Auras  i can easily see when it is on and how much time is left.

However many mages use scorchio. This tracks all buffs and debuffs for mages, and is highly recommended for fire mages due to living bomb tracker.

Cast Bars:

Get Quartz… best cast bar out of there as it shows your latency (the red bit at the end).  Simply hit your next spell when your cast time hits this to start your next cast
Cool Downs

Again you can use scorchio2 to track CDs

However i use sexy Cool Downs to keep track of mine. This mod is cool as you can filter out long CD’s (ie hearths and such) and you can also set it to  flash your screen when a cool down is ready.

There are many other good CD trackers,  however i quite like sexy so make your own judgement.

Deadly Boss Modes – Get it.. period.

It tracks and tells you everything you need to know during an encounter. Invaluable for raids.

Latency

http://www.wowinterface.com/downloads/info13581-LeatrixLatencyFix

Download this baby (it’s not an addon so don’t put it there and expect it to work ) Basically, it can improve your latency by 60% in some cases.

Check out the link if you’re interested in Technical info ^^

And thats about it. Everything else on my screen is purely cosmetic and not really needed for raiding (i just like having a toned down ui …. lol)

And for the End:

FROST EMBLEMS

• Buy the tier 10 set first -go in the order of Helm / Chest > shoulders > gloves (gloves are last due to chance to drop in VOA)

• If the pants drop in voa – SWEET-  but do not buy them, as they are not really good enough for Arcane (aim for the leggings of woven death).

• 2set and 4set for tier 10 are god like for arcane mages

Hope this Helps.